Page 82 of Saved By the Billionaire

Her heart began to pound now and she ignored the older man’s suggestion of a seat in favour of pacing. She paced towards the sliding doors, close enough that they swung open, then away, then back towards, and this time, she contemplated walking straight out of them and taking a cab home. After all, what was she doing here? Why had she come? She had a nebulous cloud of things she wanted to say, but they were exactly that: nebulous and cloud-like, shifting through her without taking proper shape, so she couldn’t order her thoughts, let alone determine what would make her feel better. But confronting Roman had become an itch she needed to scratch. She’d been feeling that since their horrifying argument, since the awful things he’d said, and it had been building up like a pressure gauge ever since. Now, it was unbearable. Still, she took another step towards the doors, the fresh air calling her name. Tempting her.

“Kate.” It was not Roman’s voice, but rather, a woman’s. Kate spun, surprised but not shocked to find Tia stalking towards her. “Don’t you dare leave.”

“Channelling your inner-Roman?” Kate responded, standing still.

Tia didn’t smile. Instead, she wrapped Kate in a huge hug, as tight as any Roman had ever given her, crushing her to her chest. “I am so damn glad to see you.”

Kate ignored the spasm in the region of her heart, the aching sense of belonging that she knew she needed to contain.

“I didn’t know you were in Sydney.” And the second she heard the guardedness in her tone, she knew what a hypocrite she was. She knew, because the barb of jealousy that speared through her was the same jealousy she felt whenever she was with Tia and Roman—whenever he talked about Tia in the context of ‘we, us’. It had been destroying Kate since she’d first met the other woman. True, she hadn’t gone ballistic on Roman the way he had on her, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t wanted to.

“I had some meetings.”

“You’re staying with Roman?” There it was again. Sharp as a knife blade.

“No, honey. I’m staying in the same hotel as Roman; there’s a difference.”

“Why did the concierge call you?”

“I was in his room. We were hanging out. Fully clothed,” Tia winked. “I knew he wouldn’t want me to let you get away. He’d just jumped in the shower when the phone rang. Come on.”

But Kate looked towards the door, uncertainty tightening like a noose around her.

“Kate, you guys need to talk. Just…sit across a table from him, see what he has to say, how you feel, then work out if you want to bolt or not.”

Kate hesitated for a long minute and then nodded, tersely. “Yeah, okay. I did come here for that.” She knew it wasn’t her most eloquent sentence; eloquent felt a long way behind her. But she let Tia guide her to the elevators and swipe her keycard, then punch the number for Roman’s floor. Unlike his penthouse, these opened onto a hallway with other doors, not direct to his room, and she was glad. It gave her longer to rally herself.

“Okay, this is his room,” Tia nodded to a door at the end. “And I’m just over here, if you need me,” she nodded to the room beside it. Nice and close. Kate quelled the jealousy. Academically, she knew it wasn’t based on anything. Tia had been nothing but supportive of Kate, almost from the beginning. She swiped Roman’s keycard, which Kate noted Tia kept a copy of for herself, then stepped back. “You’re up, hon. Good luck.”

But there was nothing but support and encouragement in Tia’s voice as she moved to her own room. Kate sucked in a breath and pushed the door inwards, calling out, “Hello?”

No answer.

This wasn’t exactly his palatial New York penthouse but it was pretty damn special, Kate thought, as she moved down a hallway and into an open plan living area, with a kitchen, living room, dining table for ten, and sliding doors that opened onto a deck. Hell, there was a room through a double-width doorway with a baby grand piano. Not your average hotel room, then. A door click sounded and she spun around guiltily, but it was perhaps the door from the ensuite to his bathroom. She still had time. She looked around quickly, working out where to stand, or sit, what to say, but in the end, Roman appeared before she could make up her mind. He walked in wearing only jeans, his stride so familiar, but his expression locked in a mask of concentration, his gaze fixed on the carpet. “I should have stayed. I should have at least made sure she got home okay.”

Kate’s heart throbbed. She took a step backwards, and the involuntary movement evidently caught his attention because he looked up and froze.

“Kate?” He looked like he’d seen a thousand ghosts, not just one.

“It’s not breaking-and-entering. Tia let me in.”

“I was in the shower,” he explained, pointing towards a bedroom door from which steam escaped.

“Yeah, she said that.” Silence fell, save for the humming of the hotel room appliances.

He moved across the room, and she knew now what he was doing. She knew him, better, perhaps, than he knew himself. He was playing for time. Assuming an air of easy nonchalance, as he opened the fridge and pulled out two bottles of water. He didn’t walk one straight across to her, though. He wasn’t ready. Instead, he twisted the lids off each, his shoulders moving with each intake of breath. God, she could read him like a book now.

He turned to face her when he had mentally prepared himself, carrying the water over, eyes holding hers with a look that most people wouldn’t understand. But she did. The more impenetrable his features, the more he was hiding his vulnerability.

“How was your night?”

Had she been swept off her feet? Was she in love with someone else? Had she kissed him? He hadn’t asked the questions but they were easy to hear in his silence.

Kate sighed. “You know, I’m tempted to lie, and tell you I fell madly in love,” she said, watching the effect those words had on him. Seeing the way his jaw clenched and his body tightened. Seeing the way he was hurting and hating it, even when on some level, he partway deserved it. Just a little. “To tell you that he kissed me, long and hard, and I was glad, because I didn’t want you to be the last man I’d kissed.” She moved towards him then, staring up at him, keeping her own features guarded with the same determination he was employing. “What about you, Roman? Am I the last woman you kissed? Touched? Fucked, as you say?”

He closed his eyes, and all of a sudden, she was slipping, the world falling away from her. She wasn’t. It hadn’t even occurred to her that he might have moved on—at least physically.

“Oh my God,” she whispered, stepping back from him like she’d been slapped. “I’m not, am I?”